So you wanna be a DJ
by Sharee
So you've been partying for awhile now ... but just dancing at clubs doesn't really cut it for you. You need to have a more "interactive" participation in what goes on out on the dancefloor? Your love of music and beats has grown so that you need to satiate your burning desire to construct an aural journey for your listeners? You admire other DJs and now have the drive to say, "Hey! I can do that too!"? Well, you're not alone. Everyday, more DJs are born into the "scene". But a word of early caution is due: if your motivations are, 1. to get more chicks/guys, 2. to be a rock star, or 3. to make lots of money - stop right now, DJing will not be your bag. To be a "good" DJ takes dedication, practice, effort and a genuine love of the "art". If you truly love this art, you will know it when you find yourself buying records instead of groceries! So let's say that you honestly want to pursue a DJing "hobby" (I say hobby only because very few DJs in the world actually pay all their bills through DJing!), where do you start?? First of all you must learn the skills you need to actually mix records. Another word of caution here: don't blow $1000 on buying yourself a complete DJ system (2 Technics 1200's and a mixer) right off the bat. What happens if your urge to spin is just a "passing fad"? Well then you're stuck trying to sell off some expensive equipment! So how the heck are you gonna learn if you don't have any equipment? There's three things you can do: 1. If you have a friend that already is a DJ, you might be able to talk them into letting you on their tables to practice (they might give you some pointers of their own too!). This is the most inexpensive way to learn because you don't have to invest any money into it. The drawbacks are: you will have limited time (at best) on you're friend's system and you really need to practice a lot to get good. 2. (This is what I did) Go to swap meets, flee markets or thrift stores and find yourself an old Direct Drive turntable with some sort of pitch adjustment (the pre-1200 technics can be found for around $20 - $30 and hey, that's what Grandmaster Flash used!). Don't be discouraged that these tables are not the "bomb" - if you can learn to match beats on "lesser" equipment, then you will be able to match beats on ANYTHING! Next, you can hop over to Radio Shack and buy one of their $50 mixers. Again, don't be concerned if this isn't the best mixer - all you need is something with a fader and two channels. Also, I believe Gemini still makes the "scratchmaster" mixer which is only about $79 on sale. Usually, you can get all this stuff for under $100. If you truly believe you will want to stick with DJing, there is a fourth option and that is to check the papers for used 1200's. Used, these tables usually run about $150 - $250. They might not be in pristine condition, but these decks are really hard to break, so they usually will serve you well for years even if they are used. Get yourself a pair of headphones (just about any kind will do for now) and you're ready to learn. This equipment you'll be able to plug right into your home stereo. Next, you're gonna need some vinyl to play around with. The easiest "genre" for a beginner is mid tempo house. House, with it's straight beat, 4/4 rhythm is very easy to match up. Get yourself a few house records from the used bin at your local record store or borrow some from a DJ friend. It's ok if you don't like house ... I don't like house either, but that's what I started with and it made learning a whole lot easier! If you try to jump right in to spinning say, jungle, you will get very frustrated! The best way to learn to match beats is to play one record, then, while listening to the other record in your headphones, adjust the pitch control to match the beats of the record that is playing. If you're having trouble deciphering which record is going faster/slower than the other, here's a good trick that works like a charm: take your headphones off and put the crossfader in the middle while both records are playing. Pick one of the records and adjust it until you can hear it coming close to the other one. Without the headphones on, and with both tracks coming out of the speakers at the same time, it's usually much easier to match the two. Keep at this until you are proficient at doing this while you have the headphones on. Once you've got this general concept down, feel free to explore other styles of music to find the one (or several!) that you would enjoy spinning most. Making a lot of practice mix tapes also helped me out. You can hear your mistakes better on the tape than live "in the mix". You also get to learn your records better and see what flows good with what. Remember, in the beginning stages it's important to practice as much as you can - hone your skills. If you do have friends that DJ, ask them for some pointers. Watch out for future articles where I'll elaborate (and do my best to explain) more DJ skills, review some DJ mixers, talk about getting gigs and playing out and discuss what makes a "good" mixtape ... stay tuned!
Developing A DJ Style
by Sharee
Almost all of us DJs can trace back to the very moment where we decided "that's what I want to do ... I want to make the crowd rock like that!" (or something similar). Well, if you can trace the moment back to a very recent occurrence, then that means you are probably just starting out as a deck wizard. When you've made this leap, you must prepare yourself in two ways .... (1) you must be prepared for a simple desire to become an outright addiction in which you spend most, if not all, of your paychecks on vinyl cravings and (2) unless you have a boatload of money to buy records in every genre of music you like, you must be prepared to choose one main "style" for yourself.
Choosing a DJ style is not always easy. It took me two years to really "fall in" to spinning jungle. For me, I started with breakbeat, then decided on trip hop, then heard some of the dark jungle that wascoming out and decided that that was it. Don't expect your "style" to come to you over night. You must develop your style like a kung fu master. You must start out a "grasshopper".
I'm going to relate to you more of my story of "DJ Evolution". Hopefully, you'll be able to extrapolate some of my ideas and add them to your own developing style, whether it be jungle, hip hop, breaks ... whatever.
Style: Part 1
As I said, I started with breaks in 1994 ... all that DJ Icey, Bassbin twins type of stuff. Anyway, after I got that whole beatmatching thing down and was confidant enough to move out into the world, I started promoting myself as a breakbeat DJ. That went "o.k.", but I was still picking up other tunes here and there that ranged anywhere from techno to trance (the 'old" trance folks). Then I started hearing some Chemical Brothers stuff (back then, they were still the Dust Brothers), Ninja Tune, DJ Shadow, etc. I fell into the whole downtempo/trip hop scene and started buying that stuff (by this point my wallet was already begging me to stop buying so many records). However, I quickly discovered that no one was really booking a DJ to rock a chill downtempo set and I realized that I had a whole pile of records from all kinds of genres and I had trouble making sets out of. Although I did get a couple of opening gigs, I learned that if I wanted to really "rock the crowd", I had to play it a bit more aggressive ... a bit more "dancefloor". I decided that that was "o.k." to do in my situation because I did like the more danceable stuff and didn't mind playing it at all (if you are caught in this toss up, you must decide if you really want to go after gigs, or you're content to spin for your friends at house parties). So then I started buying more breaks again. I was on this seesaw of choosing records ... I just couldn't really lock it down and decide what I wanted to play, yet it was becoming more and more apparent to me that a DJ couldn't really get anywhere unless they marketed themselves as spinning just one main thing (at that point, I felt like joining a support group or something!). If you're reading this, you might be finding yourself in a similar situation right now. My advice is to go with your absolute favorite genre and then boldly start going where thousands have gone before you and start marketing yourself like you're the hottest thing since toasted bread. As luck would have it, my "favorite" genre really turned out to be jungle. Although I didn't care for the earliest stuff back then, when the darkness came in late '95/early '96, it was on. There was no doubt in my mind that jungle was it (and there hasn't been since). So although it took some time, I finally fell into my niche. Another bit of advice (that I learned a couple years ago) is to stay true to your chosen style, but avoid getting pigeonholed (like, "oh yeah, Sharee ... she only plays dark stuff ..."). Make the majority of your record collection your favorite sub genre (say, hard step), then build around that with other records to spice up your set (say, rollers, amens, jumpy stuff, etc. etc.).
Style: Part 2
Now the second part of style builds on that last thought .... amassing a collection of a variety or different records within your chosen style and developing any particular deck skills or, what I like to call, "atmospherics". The variety factor is kind of a given ... although that's where I see most people lacking these days. I tell ya, nothing bores me more than to hear a DJ drop record after record of the exact same sound. Yeah sure, it "flows" nicely together, but to listen to the same beat loops for an hour or more really has become like Chinese water torture to me. For everyone's sake, show people how creative you can be! Be thoughtful in your track selection. Don't be afraid to throw an older record or two in there (it doesn't all have to be the newest tracks or dub plates ya know). If you really want to "wow" the crowd, try learning some scratching techniques and toss those in every now and then. Throw some more "atmospherics" into the mix by dropping a wacky spoken word record over something ... or some old rap acapella ... Not only will you grab the crowds attention, but they will also remember you a hell of a lot more than "DJ Poobutt" who got up there and played a whole set that sounded like one very long track. Another thing to try to avoid is not to let your "atmospherics" turn into "theatrics". Although, many doped up "average joes" in the crowd might think you're the King of the 1200's when you lick your fingers and rock the fader while moving your hand back and forth over (not touching) your next record (when all you really did was choose a record that already had scratching samples in it), any real DJs in the crowd (or people that can get a good look at what you're really doing) will thing you are bozo the clown. Remember folks, it's all fun and games until someone "finds you out"! You will be the Mili Vanili of the DJ world. Now I know everyone has their own shtick, but I think it's far better to be true to yourself and to your music and to the crowd you're playing for than to put on an act.
The Conclusion ....
So if you're a budding DJ and you really want to get out there and play:
(1) Hone in on one style and then build a solid collection of wax with a variety of different sub genres.
(2) Work on adding creativity to your set. Learn some new turntable skills (if you want to).
(3) Start promoting yourself as a [insert genre here] DJ.
Good luck!
Turntable Etiquette
by Sharee
Here's the latest installment if you've been following along with the "How To's" so far. This one's not so much a how to as it is just plain 'ol common sense things that are often overlooked by both DJs and on lookers.
Through my years of attending clubs, events and parties, I have seen near brawls started simply because of someone's lack of courtesy to the DJ. Likewise, I've seen tempers flare between DJs (the infamous "DJ Politics" which I'll touch on in a minute) as well as DJs and the audience. Hopefully, this little list of simple "rules" will educate both factions and a more harmonious union of the two will ensue:
DJ Etiquette
1) Fees & Payment: Oooo, these are tricky ones (and ones that are almost always fouled up in some fashion). The fee you charge as a DJ is up to you. My best advice is this: try to find out what the "big name" DJs in your area charge, then try to find out what if anything the "newbies" charge. Depending on your skill level, you should be able to decide on either a "set price" on an hourly rate using this information. If you're just starting out, I'd recommend charging between $50 - $100. If you continue to do "freebies", you WILL get a reputation of always doing things for free or being easily swayed to do things for free. Charging something will at least let people know that you're a skilled "professional" and you expect compensation for your time and effort. The number one rule of actually getting payment is to DESIGN A CONTRACT. Perhaps in the next feature I will post one of the Jungle Voodoo contracts for everyone. A contract serves as a legal document between you and the promoter. Unless you don't want to get paid, are doing charity work or a favor for a close friend, ALWAYS have a contract completed before your services are rendered. If a promoter is not willing to sign a contract, do not do the gig UNLESS YOU DO NOT WANT TO GET PAID (because inevitably, that's what will happen). Having your own contracts gives you a more professional image - it says to promoters, "Hey, I don't screw around". Many contracts are drawn up so that 50% of your payment is up front, the other half is paid either before or upon completion of services rendered. Often times, it's a better idea to get paid BEFORE you spin, that way you know your covered in case of a shut down, a missing promoter, etc. In your experiences as a DJ, you will hear very colorful and comedic "excuses" from promoter on why they can not pay you (ie. someone stole our door money .... we didn't make any money .... etc. etc.). If this arises, and you did not get paid up front, you are basically screwed (unless of course you want to take the bozo to court). Also, be careful of "sketchy" promoters (ie. people operating several levels below the law ... people with big posse's of gangsters ... etc. etc.) - in some rare instances, it's better to leave in one piece than to not leave at all. You have to become a good judge of character and use your instincts. Scary thought, yes, but because of the nature of the "underground scene" it's something you will likely have to deal with in your career as a DJ.
2) Time slots: many DJs fight needlessly over time slots. Here's what to remember - when in doubt, go get the promoter. The promoter usually has the final say on who plays when and for how long. If the promoter is a wuss or can't be found, try to work out with the other DJs logical set times so that everyone gets a turn on the decks. It's lame and inconsiderate to "pull rank" or get a big head and try to kick a DJ off the tables. Likewise, if you've been playing for awhile and you know it's someone's else's turn, be considerate and relinquish the decks so that the next DJ can get some exposure too.
3) DJ "Politics": Sometimes it's hard to accept that at many parties time slots are never what the promoter originally told you. Try to "go with the flow" and don't let a big headed DJ or other factors ruin your night. In your experiences as a DJ, you will encounter many personalities and many awkward situations. There is a fine line between knowing when to stand your ground, back down, state your opinion, go get the promoter, etc. It's hard to explain the whole thing in just a paragraph, but the best advice I can give is that DJing is like any other job: at your "workplace", some people you work with are cool and some are assholes and you eventually learn how to deal with both so that you can do your job effectively. When you're DJing, you're (usually) getting paid to provide a service. Try to act as professional as possible without stooping to school yard tactics. And by all means, don't let another DJ with an inflated ego get you down. If you've got the skills, the best thing to do is to just do as good a job as you can on the decks and your talents will serve to put anyone dogging you in their place.
4) On the Desks: This is also where are lot of the fights/near fights break out. Just remember to follow these few rules of common courtesy and you will be respected and professional:
1) DO NOT, under any circumstances, touch the decks while another DJ is spinning - this includes fooling with the mixer, amp or speakers (unless you are the appointed sound person of the party and something is actually wrong with the sound).
2) If you are an MC, DO NOT assume that it's all right to just grab a mic and go (unless you have been booked by the promoter to do just that and the DJs are aware of it).
3) DO NOT touch other people's records.
4) DO bring your own set of headphones.
5) It is common that on your last record, you leave the sleeve out or you stand by so that the next DJ can hand the record to you or put it away for you.
6) Although a lot of people do not do this, sometimes it's nice to see the other DJs sets before you go on so that you do not repeat records.
7) Bear in mind that people will come up and ask you all manner of stupid shit while you're trying to spin. If someone just wants to know the name of the record you're playing, it is courteous to tell them (the artist/label of the record would surely appreciate that too). It's lame to try to keep records "secret" from people unless you have a damn good reason for it. That kind of behavior will land you in the "big headed" DJ category in no time and it also hurts the artists/labels who are trying to get people to know what their music is.
On looker/Party Attendee/Dancer Etiquette
1) Dancing Near the Decks: If you like to get right up there and dance near the decks, don't be a complete looser and flap around like a chicken, continuously bumping the decks (and making the needles skip). Pay attention to your surroundings and your immediate proximity to the turntables. There are few things more annoying than trying to beat match a record while a flailing dancer keeps knocking the tables.
2) Trainspotting: No, we're not talking about that silly movie. "Trainspotter" is a term DJs use for people who stand very close to the decks and stare at every record that is dropped. This is a phenomenon that will continue till the end of time. So the best advice is this: yeah, it's ok to try to see what record is playing, but also try to observe the DJ - do not get in his/her way at any time and if you seem to really be annoying him/her, back off a little.
3) Talking to the DJ: As a general rule, this is very poor etiquette. This is like talking to a city bus driver while they're trying to navigate a crowded street - not only are you really annoying the guy, you're also making it easier for him to screw up! 1) DO NOT EVER ask a DJ to play a different genre than what he's spinning (ie. a DJ is playing jungle, you ask "Do you have a progressive trance?"). Ok, so I can't even express what an annoyance this is! I don't care how many drugs you're on, you've got the brain of a dish sponge if you ask this. 2) Special requests WITHIN the genre of what the DJ is spinning are ok BUT: do not interrupt the DJ while he/she is "in the mix" (cueing up and trying to beat match a record or in the middle of cross fading the next record). Wait until the DJ is going to his/her bag to get another record, taking a swig of beer, etc. etc. 3) Hold personal comments until the end of the DJs set. If you want to tell a DJ what a good job he/she is doing without interrupting or waiting till the end of the set, get out on the floor and dance your ass off (they will notice).
4) Other Distractions: This should kinda go without saying, but unfortunately I've seen it multiple times: DO NOT EVER THROW ANYTHING AT THE DJ! I don't care if they suck or you hate them or what, this is just bad. Also, if you're a photographer and you're clicking off ultra bright flash pics, it might be a good idea at the end pf the set to tell the DJ what publication you're from (since you annoyed them with flashes, you could give them the courtesy of telling them where their mug might show up).
Satisfying the scratchin' itch
by Sharee
Scratching is just a small part of the history of what is now called "turntablism". Grandmaster Flash and Davy DMX were some of the early "dance" pioneers who started manipulating their turntables and the records that were playing on them, to create the sounds that would open up a whole new arena for the DJ.
I'm not going to go into crazy terminology and technicalities here (I'll leave that up to the other articles) .... What I'm gonna tell you is exactly how I learned to scratch. So this will be a light hearted, somewhat humorous, yet pretty down to earth version on how to hone those scratchin' skills. Enjoy!
Phase One
So, 'round about 1995, I was deep into the funky breaks and downtempo sound. This was the era that I first got the inkling to want to "scratch" my records. After hearing grooves created by the likes of DJ Shadow and some of the early Wall of Sound cats, I was tempted to lay down some "scratching" over top .... I had no idea what I was doing really. I borrowed a DJ Rectangle record from my buddy Randy J. Of course when I asked for it, Randy gave me a few pointers to go on, but from the "beyond beginner" point I was at in the department it all sounded like a blur. So I happily went home with this record, back to my ghetto set up of 1 Gemini "scratchmaster" (ironic, huh?), 1 crappy Gemini beltdrive turntable and my prize possession: 1 shiny new Technics 1200. Naturally, I would never attempt to really "do anything" on that piece of dog doo known as the Gemini belt drive, so I would just set up my little downtempo record on that and attempt to "scratch" over it on the 1200. Instead of just being smart and getting some DMC videos or something, I hacked away with no direction and quickly got frustrated. Not much happened for the next, almost two, years.
Phase Two
So all this time has gone by and granted, I didn't give up completely on scratching, but I didn't really pursue it a whole lot either. Then one magical day Mario informs me that he purchased a Vestax PMC-05. I'd heard all the stories about this thing .... it was Q-Bert's weapon of choice, blah blah blah. Mario quickly confirmed all the hype when he brought it over and, in what seemed like only a week, was already well on his way to scratch land. The key thing about this mixer is the fader - it's like butter - smooth as silk - light as a feather .... and it only gets better the more you use it. Ingenious indeed. So I gave it a shot, and lo and behold I was bustin' out "baby scratches" (the "baby" scratch is something a monkey could do with no training what so ever - remember, I'm just starting out here!!). No matter how slight of an accomplishment this was - it was something that I never felt on the Gemini - the 05 just "felt" commfortable.
Phase Three
So like a couple months later, and about 8 hours worth of time on the 05 I had progressed to doing some more "complex" things ... mainly, I got a good feel for the cross-fader (my new best friend!). I was able to do the regular old "baby" scratches (simply back and forth stuff with your record hand) but cleverly cut out the sound with the fader. Once I felt comfortable with that, I tried doing more complex things with my record hand - stopping at certain points, putting different little "accents" on the scratches (two forward, one back, that kind of stuff). I'm sure I could have been way farther by this point, but after all I'm a lazy sot and was not interested in carpal tunnel syndrome at the time. I was content for the moment.
Phase Four
So Mario comes back from a local record shop one day and was all excited to tell me about the new tricks he learned by watching the Q-Bert video the store had playing- the main one being the "crab". This, I think, was the most famous of Q-Bert style scratching (tho even he didn't really originate this move - just expanded on another DJs trick called the "tweedle"). Here, your fader hand curls up like a little crab. Using your thumb to kind of steady the fader, you tap your fingers on it to make these really fast triplet scratches. Believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds. Even after Mario showed me how to do it, it did not just come to me. And me being the "well if I don't get it right off the bat I get frustrated" type of girl, it took me a very long time to perfect this. Mario, who is a glutton for punishment and one of those guys that will do something over and over and over and ... well, you get the picture .... he had this scratch pretty much down in what seemed like no time at all (but was really hours and hours worth of practice!).
Phase Five
Left to my own devices (which simply means I was left with the mixer, unsupervised, for like a week) I had decided one day to put my frustrations aside and really get down to brass tacks on this scratching thing. I had a nice conversation with the 05, in which we became pals (well, at least for scratching - for actual mixing, we are still not on good terms) and after a few good solid hours of practicing I had discovered that I had progressed more in one day that I had in the whole year. It just so happens too, that on this day I had discovered the Skratch Pickles "100 MPH Backslidin' Turkey Breaks" record (which incidentally, has been my most favorite scratching record up until a couple months ago when I got Rectangle's "Ultimate Battle Weapon 4" which totally rocked me). I don't know why but I just clicked with this record. Maybe it was the sequences of scratch noises on this record, but in a couple months time everyone noticed a big 'ol improvement on what I was doing.
Phase Six
So I discovered that I only got better with practice and with watching whatever new skill Mario had learned and demonstrated for me (I'm one of those visual/tactile learners - have to see it done, then actually do it before I get anything down!). I think this was all going on around 1998 ... and it ws around this same time that I actually felt confident enough to "bust some moves" in actual DJ performances (over drum and bass mind you). After not bombing while doing this, it gave me the little extra ego boost to really push me off into the "yeah, I wanna be able to really 'hold my own'" arena.
Current Phase
So that pretty much brings us up to the present. My scratching focus of late has been to do these wacky little intricate scratch patterns over jungle trax. I found that the "crab" style of holding you hand works best for this kind of stuff. I also found that the more you relax both the record and the fader hands, the better off you're able to pull some of these scratches. Tensing up my wrist and forearm was really a problem for me for a long time and kept me from mastering a lot of the skills. If you're just starting out, I would recommend making a real conscious effort to be as relaxed as possible (pretend your arm is asleep and it's just this limp thing that you can only move from your upper arm). The other thing that helped me along was my line of thinking - I used to be really lazy and, consequently, did not make hardly any progress. Scratching is just like anything else - you have to put some time into it in order to get good at it. Now I look at is as kind of a "work out" - you know, like 30 minutes a day for 3-4 days a week. Sometimes I lag ... and it is true that you'll get "rusty", but once you get to a certain skill level it really is like riding a bike. Watching other people perform the different scratches really helped me out to. That gives you a better starting point automatically. It's very hard to just read how a scratch is supposed to be performed. If you truly want to be a "scratchmaster", you have to train like Bruce Lee! Then you can get into "battles" and front all these skills you've worked so hard on =)
